In many applications shaped polycarbonate articles have a soft skin or outer layer disposed thereon in order to improve their aesthetic appeal. The soft coating most often utilized for reasons of economy and ease of fabrication contains polyvinyl chloride resin, either alone or blended with other resins such as acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene. In order to render this coating flexible certain chemical plasticizers are often added to this outer layer. However, when this soft outer layer is bonded to the polycarbonate substrate there is inevitably some migration of the plasticizers into the polycarbonate. This results in chemical degradation of the polycarbonate resin and the resultant loss of its advantageous mechanical and physical properties.
There thus exists a need for a shaped polycarbonate article having a soft plasticized outer layer disposed on its surface wherein the polycarbonate substrate is protected from the deleterious affects of the plasticizers present in the soft coating layer. It is an object of this invention to provide such a coated polycarbonate article.